Chapter Text
Within the inner sanctum of Silbern devoid of all prying eyes Jugram Haschwalth reverently knelt before the throne, head bowed and hand resting over his heart. The silence stretched. Jugram didn’t move, firmly remaining in his position of patient fealty before his king; Yhwach would speak when he was ready, and until then Jugram would wait.
In reality, Jugram wasn’t kneeling for long before His Majesty’s deep burr cracked the stillness like lightning in the dead of night.
“There is a matter of great importance I wish to entrust to you, Haschwalth.” Jugram’s head perked but he kept his gaze down, hand still resting over his heart in submission before his king. “Kurosaki Ichigo—his former allies have abandoned him, isolated him, left him vulnerable.”
Jugram listens intently to His Majesty speak and is surprised by learning that Kurosaki had been cast aside—and yet, wasn’t that just like the Shinigami to throw away and forget about those who no longer held any worth to them?
However, the Shinigami’s folly was the Quincy’s boon.
“This is an opportunity we will not allow to pass us by.”
A faint, knowing pause followed.
“Haschwalth. Go to the Living World, make contact with Kurosaki Ichigo and earn his trust, awaken the memories in his soul.”
Jugram bowed deeply. “Yes, your Majesty.”
“Go. Bring Kurosaki Ichigo home, Haschwalth, where he belongs.”
With another bow and without another word, Jugram swiftly left the throne room, feeling His Majesty’s heavy gaze upon his back even long after the towering doors sealed closed behind him. Lingering outside the throne room for a moment, Jugram carefully considers the full weight of His Majesty’s command.
It wasn’t an impossible task.
But it would not be an easy one either.
If Jugram were to earn Kurosaki Ichigo’s trust—to guide him back into the light and away from the shadows of the Shinigami—then his first task would be to fracture the bonds the boy still clung to so fiercely, and redirect that loyalty to where it truly belonged.
And though he was presently as powerless as a newborn babe, Kurosaki Ichigo remained the Quincy’s foremost special war threat, a title owed not to what he was now, but to the immense potential and dormant power within him.
His abilities were not simply gone forever with the call of Mugetsu.
The memories slumbering deep within the gemischt’s soul needed only the gentlest coaxing to awaken. It was for this reason that His Majesty had entrusted this delicate undertaking to Jugram—the only one capable of carrying it out.
And Jugram would not fail His Majesty.